Jay Leno Transcript

Jay: Alright, my first guest is an extremely talented young actor, good heavens, the man is on the cover of Time Magazine, he’s currently starting in the Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers, it opens this Wednesday, please welcome Elijah Wood!

Elijah comes out and hugs Jay

Jay: A lion bit all your hair off!

Elijah:(rubs head) I did! I shaved it.

Jay: Yeah, wow.

Elijah: I know. I’ve wanted to do it for awhile.

Jay: It’s not for a part? You just wanted to shave it

Elijah: Just for me.

Jay: Just for you.

Elijah: We actors can do things for ourselves once in awhile.

Jay: I’ve heard that, but I’ve never actually seen it happen.

Elijah giggles

Jay: Now where, you’re just in from where, now, Paris?

Elijah: I’m just in from Paris - New York by way of Paris.

Jay: Ok. What were you doing there? Promoting?

Elijah: Promoting Lord of the Rings, the Two Towers

Jay: Cool

Elijah: So (audience cheers) First time to Paris. (nods to audience and claps.) Good! We have fans!

Jay: So did you go out to eat? Did you do all the things…did you make the whole…

Elijah: I .. . I was stuck in a hotel the entire time, that’s the sort of…

Jay: Hope she was cute (Elijah cuts off)

Elijah: oh….(raises eyebrows, rubs hands together and nods with a smile) That’s the thing about doing these press junkets. They take you to these beautiful places, but they don’t actually allow you to see them. And I had, you know, 5-6 hours the first day I got there to sort of see the city, which I covered a lot of ground. Uh, but everything else was in the hotel. But it was beautiful, beautiful. Go to Paris. It’s amazing.

Jay: So what…you didn’t…did you go out did you roam the streets of Paris at night?

Elijah: Yeah…we did a bit of that…we had incredible food and then back to the. ..the…

Jay: The women…did you see any Parisian women….

Elijah: The women are unbelievable! (laughs) And I think that’s part of …the half of why I was excited to go and it’s exactly as you’re told….I wanted to marry everyone I saw.

Jay: Did they recognize you? Did you go “Hi…you know…I’m a…Hobbit..

Elijah laughs

Jay: Is that like being Sean Connery or something…hi..I’m a hobbit…

Elijah: Well the great thing about being a hobbit is you have the big feet and then the.. you know the…(audience laughs and Lij leans over and grabs his cup) I mean it…maybe it works in Paris..I don’t know.

Jay: But ultimately it’s disappointing in the end….yeah I know what you mean…

Elijah: (laughs) But yeah…well because I’m not really a hobbit and yes…..and look at how small the feet.

Jay: So now you’re home for the holidays…what do you do?

Elijah: Uh...What am I doing at home for the holidays? Uh..just...I’m gonna have Christmas and then I’m gonna head out to England, the north of England for New Year.

Jay: Now, cause the last time you were here, last year, we talked about this, I think you lived with your mom back then, and…waiting for your 21st birthday, of course you were still a young man…now you’re a man...

Elijah: So much has changed in a year, Jay…let me tell ya)

JayI assume you’ve moved out….you’ve got your own place…

Elijah: No…no…(audience laughs)

Jay: You’re still living at home?

Elijah: Yeah, yeah…..no, I still live at home…

Jay: Does she do your laundry?

Elijah: Uh..Jay ….yes she does.

Jay: Ok so…so you’re in New Zealand for 16 months

Elijah: That’s right

Jay: and you bring your mom 16 months worth of laundry back from New Zealand?

Elijah: Uh Essentially, yeah…

Jay: Now see, is it hard when you meet women and go….we can’t go back to my place…my mom’s still up.

Elijah: I’ve not,…you know to be honest…and this may … this is not a very good reflection on me…maybe it isn’t, maybe it is, I’ve never actually brought anyone back to the house, or had that opportunity…so…I don’t know why that is….

Jay: This is like Marty, the movie

Elijah: But I AM moving out soon, and I will be taking…just you know, for your comfort…I’ll be doing my own laundry…and..food and all of that..

Elijah: That’s right, we got a Fellowship tattoo…the nine members of the Fellowship got a tattoo..it’s essentially Elivish, it stands for nine……the nine members of the Fellowship

Jay: So who’s idea was this to get the…I mean did you all get drunk one night and go down to a tattoo place?

Elijah laughs

Elijah: It was an idea that we all kind of collectively had…Orlando Bloom takes the credit for it…I don’t think he was the guy who had the idea initially but um it was something that we kinda realized by the end of the journey it would be a great idea to kind of signify, you know, the experience that we had together. And we weren’t drunk when we did it, surprisingly enough.

Jay: Really!

Elijah: We were told not to drink because it actually thins the blood and it makes you bleed.

Jay: Oh…ok. So did you all get the tattoos in the same place?

Elijah: Different places and we did different sort of shading so they all kinda look slightly different and unique to the individual

Jay: So if one of you turns up dead….we can know by the tattoo…oh of course this one..by the shading..

Elijah: That’s…that’s right..

Jay: Can you show us the tattoo?

shrieks from audience and a drum roll

Elijah: Uh oh…I’ve made a pact…a Fellowship Pact not to show the tattoo

Crowd: Awwwwwww...

Jay: Has your mom seen the tattoo?

Elijah: My mom has seen the tattoo.

Jay: Now…Ian…Ian McKellen…he showed it. And so did Sean…

Elijah: Oh….they did?

Jay: In fact….we have a picture…where’s Ian…?

show picture

Elijah: Oooohhh….Look what he’s done….the LEADER of the Fellowship….

Jay: So there you are. So can you show us yours?

Elijah: Well I guess I have no choice

shrieks from the audience

Elijah stands, pulls aside his jacket, looks up to the audience, pulls up his shirt, pulls down the hem of his jeans and stretches his skin up to show two small Elvish figures. His finger kinda strokes the skin next to it

Jay: wow

Elijah: (giggles) There it is. giggles again It’s a unique spot.

Jay: Now tell us about the film…we saw it the other night. It’s an amazing piece of work.

Elijah: It’s incredible

Jay: You know it’s one of those things when you watch it on the middle of the screen there’s things going on this corner (points to one corner) and this corner (points to the other corner)

Elijah: Yeah, the details are magnificent

Jay: Cause for someone who didn’t read the book…I got a little lost.

Elijah: It’s easy to get lost…*I* got lost.

Jay: I kept goin’ . .. Kevin….which one is that? (Elijah giggles) and then Kevin would explain. Kevin read all the books.

Elijah: Did you …you know that massive shot of the dead marshes…did you see in the middle of that shot there are little hobbits walking around. It’s massive…all you see is marsh and right in the center…..tiny little hobbits. It’s amazing.

Jay: No..see, I missed that completely

Elijah: Ok…well there…Look for it next time.

Jay: All right..tell us a little bit about it..for those that have no access to media of any kind.

Elijah: right, right…it’s essentially continuing where he first left off, if you don’t know about the story it’s basically about this ring that threatens all of middle earth, needs to be destroy Frodo this hobbit is taking this journey in this story the fellowship is broken so there are actually three individual stories and it’s just darker, it’s more epic.

Jay: yeah, and they say right in here (points to time magazine) why it’s better than the first one. Very rare that the second is better, it’s amazing. Let’s take a look at the clip, what is this scene we’re gonna see here?

Elijah: This is being lost in Emyn Muil

Jay: Oh this is in New Zealand..

Elijah: Yes..as well…the whole thing…

Jay: All right let’s take a look

Shows clip Frodo and Sam

Jay: Terrific. Lord of the Rings. I guess we’ll see you next year with another one.

Elijah:(laughs) I come back and visit every year..you know…

Jay: Well good luck, congratulations on your success.

Elijah: Thank you

Later on in the show, that animal lady comes out and Elijah plays with the kitties and beavers :)